It is a shame that this novel, which has some of the most hauntingly beautiful writing I've come across, is so deadly boring. While Alice McDermott is capable of creating some wonderful scenes - some funny, some heartbreaking, many recognizable - because this novel is a string of memories there is no conflict, no real dramatic tension. I have no problem with slow-moving, contemplative novels, but there has to be some through-line; otherwise, what you end up with is oftentimes similar to this book. "At Weddings and Wakes" is like a well-written diary: fascinating, sad, funny, and tender, and when you've finished all you have are snapshots, not a novel.

The quality of memory is brilliantly conveyed in this novel: the details, the dreaminess, the layers of knowing - knowing what you knew as a child and what you learned later and what happened after that. The book is a quantity of detail that never becomes claustrophobic. In the opening pages, we have a minute description of the mother, her three children, and their bus ride from Long Island to the city to visit relatives. Without boring the reader, McDermott renders exquisitely how excrutiatingly boring such visits can be for children, who don't understand exactly what's going on among the adults but understand perfectly the tension. Out of this wealth of detail emerges the story of a family, and though thoroughly Irish and Catholic, these are characters recognizable in any family - the beautiful, disappointed one, the one determined to be happy, the adored alcoholic, the smart, embittered one. We see the way family stories take on a life of their own and family problems are more like the air one breathes than explicitly defined events and situations that can be rationally addressed. "Aren't you glad that you only have to see your relatives at weddings and wakes?" says a teenager to her younger cousins. They all agree, but the reader knows the truth - each one of them is a unique product of their common family, as is each one of us.

In "At Weddings and Wakes," Alice McDermott brilliantly brings to life a tragically flawed Irish Catholic family from Brooklyn. Told through the eyes of the three children, each character in this deeply moving piece resonants with their own indivduality. By jumping between different time periods, McDermott entices the reader to follow without ever giving up the suspense. I could not put this book down. But as much as I wanted to see what happened, I didn't want it to end. Alice McDermott is, quite simply, a master storyteller.

...There were parts I really liked: The relationship of Theresa with Flora and her cousn Daisy, the unlikely but believable sexual energy with the 70yo painter (Flora's father), the Moran kids, the mood.
But there were many things that I really didn't like: The heavy-handed foreshadowing of Daisy's illness and death, the sugar-sweet perfection of Theresa, her shadowy parents, the idyllic summer setting, Theresa's protestations of 'I just like children.'Overall, I found myself repeatedly muttering aloud, 'No way...this would ever really happen.' No gorgeous 15yo girl I've ever met or heard of would devote herself so completely to all the children of a tiny village on Long Island. I kept wondering: Where are the 15yo BOYS in this town, and why aren't they tromping down the dune grass to get to this shimmering morsel of female teenage perfection??
But the writing was beautiful, and McDermott can cast a spell with mood writing.
As I said, it's difficult to review this one. I'm conflicted.

A simple story told from a 15-year-old's point of view. The teenager in question is Theresa, a beautiful girl beloved by animals and children alike. Amazingly perspicacious for a teen, Theresa takes us through a summer on Long Island where she cares for her younger cousin, Daisy, the daughter of a semi-famous painter, Flora, and a host of other neighborhood kids and animals.

Overall, Child of My Heart seemed more a series of observations and daily happenings than a plotted story. Yet it was oddly compelling, perhaps because McDermott is such a gifted writer. But I did have some problems with Theresa's character: even though she seemed so beyond her years in many respects, she was still very childlike ' she had no friends her age (only younger) and expressed no interest in boys (save for her creepy relationship with the geriatric painter). And that relationship was rather inexplicable ' she never expresses any sexual longing or attraction to this man, but still she gets naked with the old geezer (yuck!), despite being keenly aware of her beauty and that she could probably have any man she wanted. I guess I just felt like something was missing here, but I'm not sure what.

Alice McDermott is one of my favorite writers and I loved this book. Theresa is a 15 year old wonderchild, who is not only beautiful, but blessed in her ability to take care of other peoples' children. She cares for her cousin, Daisy, Flora, the daughter of a local artist, and a host of Moran children, and Swansons. What drives this book is that beautiful prose McDermott uses throughout--clean and lovely, never wasteful. You know there will be trouble ahead by the easy bruising on Daisy, and I found it a little unsettling that Theresa does not mention it to any adults, and that her own parents do not notice either. But in this world, parents do not seem to notice their children, why would they notice a bruised foot? Only a physician parent notices, but he is too busy giving Theresa the eye, and asking her for babysitting time.
Last Night is still my sentimental favorite Alice McDermott book, but this is a close second. A lovely book, with characters you won't forget. It's a slim volume that should not be read too quickly, savor it instead.

I was eager to read the book after watching the film on BBC2 (England). I expected the novel to be more descriptive, imaginative and more three dimensional than the film but found it to be quite sketchy and without fluidity. It jumped from past to present and from scene to scene quite disjointedly and I found it difficult to continue reading for I felt like I'd read the same paragraph over and over. As a result of this the only characters which seemed to convey themselves as three dimensional were that of Rick and Sheryls'. There didn't seem to be any revelation at the end of the story, I guess with having knowledge of that era that it would be quite obvious in the way things ended, with broken teenage love and little thought for the result of that. Quite disappointing overall, though worth watching the film.

If there is a synonym for splendid, it is THAT NIGHT. Reading this superior novel is like taking a journey down the suburban sidewalks of youth, cracked and weathered, but familiar. It is a journey through the high school yearbooks of everyone you have ever loved, their photos smiling out at you in that moment right before the shutter clicks and adulthood begins. McDermotts story is one of first love, between teenagers, told with such an urgency that any "adult" love we may stumble upon later in life pales in comparison. The author writes with a keen eye for detail and a highly tuned ear for the sounds of growing up, and growing away from those we have loved. When this book breaks your heart, and it will, it does so without the sentimental trappings of so many love stories. If you don't love this book--I'll take it off your hands.

Rick and Sheryl are high school sweethearts involved in an intense love affair. When Sheryl discovers that she's pregnant, her mother sends her away, not even giving Sheryl a chance to say goodbye to her beloved. When Rick comes to find -- he hopes to rescue -- Sheryl from her mother's home, a fight ensues. The narrator is Sheryl's neighbor, who was a little girl at the time of the fight, and who found Rick and Sheryl's relationship utterly romantic and fascinating at the time. Her memories of the fight, and of that summer, are long-lasting, and she describes those memories in that way that makes them seem to glow a little more softly as the time has passed. The book recaptures lost youth, and at the same time makes us realize that our youth is truly irretrievable. I love this book even more now than when I first read it in 1987! (FYI, the book is by Alice McDermott.)

Charming Billy is a book you may want to think twice about before picking up, not because it is a difficult read in the sense of language but because of the construction of the book. The author, Alice Dermott, might be charming at times with her colorful insights, vivid images and creative phrasing, but this book certainly was far from charming. McDermott is an accomplished writer, but in this book she tells the story completely backwards making it awkward at times and quite difficult to follow. I had to read a good fifty pages before I even had a clue as to what was going on in this book and who the character was who was being talked about. Not to mention that each chapter almost retells what the one before it did with maybe one more added detail to the story. So in essence, the reader might read the same sentences a dozen times. This book is not at all challenging with its very bland wording and frankly is quite boring with not a stagnant plot but a complete lack of one. The characters never get a chance to develop because the story never goes anywhere. I only finished reading the book because every once in a great while McDermott explodes in an intricate and almost poetic phrasing with the prize for finishing this book being that the end is the only part that can be considered good.

Obviously this book's main character is a man named Billy, who fell in love at a young age with a girl name Eva after coming back from war with his cousin, Dennis. Billy was fooled by his cousin into thinking she died of pneumonia and so Billy tries to live his life and go on without her. Dennis only tells Billy this lie to cover up for the fact that Eva moved on and got married to someone else. Dennis does not want his cousin to know that Eva used Billy's money, which was intended for other purposes, to start a business for her new husband. After years of struggling with the brutal lie that Eva died, Billy marries a woman named Maeve. Unfortunally, Billy could never see her the way he saw his first and true love Eva. Billy struggles with the demons of his past while trying to move on to a new life, which is why this book captures the struggles and pitfalls of depression and alcoholism portrayed through Billy's emotional character so well. This book is not the actual living of Billy, but rather others telling the stories that made up his life. I find it very interesting how McDermott does not make the book about mourning Billy's death but about celebrating his life. This book starts out very creatively in a pub in New York after Billy's funeral as guest reminisce about old times they had with Billy and about how Eva forever changed Billy's life when she broke his heart by dying.

I would recommend this book to any readers who thoroughly enjoy a challenge in figuring out story lines. I also think this book would be a must for any psychology majors because of how deep this book goes into the realm of life's struggles, depression, and the battle over the addiction of alcoholism. I give this book a two star rating and not a three only because I have read books that are average and this book just falls short of being an average book. There is insight into this book; the main problem is there simply is no plot or action of any kind and that the book flip-flops from present to past constantly losing the reader.

This novel, which reflects on the life of now deceased alcoholic Billy, is told from the point of view of the daughter of Billy's best friend. This point of view, although seemingly removed from the situation, makes for a strongly constructed novel and allows us to peak into Billy's world through a somewhat objective observer. There is a tragedy to Billy's hopelessness that is difficult to ignore. Alice McDermott does a fine job of describing the losses in Billy's life, namely that of his first love, a young Irish woman whom Billy courts during her short stay as a nanny. Billy learns of her death shortly after her return to Ireland and the devastation never leaves him. The point of contention seems to lie in the cause of Billy's alcoholism: would he have been an alcoholic even if she had not been lost? The truth of course adds to the tragedy: she was not dead but had in fact married someone else. McDermott takes on this tendentious subject with skill. There is a subtlety to the book which allows it to avoid becoming melodramatic. Billy is characterized as all too human: he is both charming and obnoxious, both kind and cruel. Even with all of these strengths, I found the book lacked a proper development of Billy. McDermott teases us by presenting Billy the way she does. It makes us want to know much more than she gives us.

A quiet, reflective story about an alcoholic man's death. His friends and family reminisce, and whispered voices are heard from the past. I liked the way this book was written. 'Quiet' is the best way to put it. Read it!

I received The Bigamist's Daughter as a gift as "anything written by Alice McDermott" was highly recommended by Anna Quindlen in a USA Today story. Although the writing is precise and flows, the story and the characters are not engaging. Elizabeth the main character seems to be sleep walking through her life, her affair and her job. I kept waiting for the story to click and I had to reread the final chapters to see what I was missing. It just wasn't there. No stars is a more accurate assessment of my review. Skip this book. I am going to try another of her titles since I got two as gifts. I will read another Isabel Alende and an Amy Tan and a Jane Austen in between.

Elizabeth Connelly works for a Manhattan vanity press. When Tupper Daniels, a sure-to-be-published author presents her with the story of a bigamist in his southern hometown, she jokingly kids that her own father had more than one wife.

Tupper's book lacks an ending, and Elizabeth seriously considers whether her father was indeed a bigamist. Together author and editor forge a relationship to search for the end of one story and the truth of another. I reached the end of A BIGAMIST'S DAUGHTER without resolution to either quest. I'm not even sure what becomes of Tupper and Elizabeth, the couple.

As a story that describes itself as "an absolutely contemporary portrait of a new generation's search for--and avoidance of--committment in life and love," it's not a picture I would hang on a wall.

I liked this so well, I've bought 5 copies as gifts. Illuminating look at family relationships, memory, story, integrity. Just when you think you have these characters figured out, there's an AHA! incident which you should have anticipated, but didn't. Has one of the best last lines in fiction. Her best work!